


Reset this World, For We Are One

by TheAzureFox



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, Yuya is not fully Yuya, Zarc and Ray still exist, alternative take on how they should have done the 'reset', canon divergence from last episodes of show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 19:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11881674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAzureFox/pseuds/TheAzureFox
Summary: The world resets itself.And, this time, Yuya has an older brother.(Canon divergence from the last 10 episodes of Arc-V. Essentially a rewrite of Arc-V's ending)





	Reset this World, For We Are One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Arc-V side of the Yugioh fandom, it's been awhile and shhh yes I know I have to work on Dragon Enigmatic but Ruri's a difficult character to write so bare with me on that
> 
> Anyways, I've had this sitting around on Google Docs for quite some time and recently remembered I wrote this. It's a rewrite of the last 10 or so episodes of Arc-V where Yuya absorbs the other three Yuu boys and essentially goes around trying to make baby Reira (Zarc) smile. 
> 
> ...Yeah, I'm not a fan of that ending but, then again, I think none of us were. So I attempted to rewrite it with what I would have liked to see within a 10-episode time span.

_The light was painful. It was agonizing, miserable. It was burning, a burning fire that seared his skin and blackened his very soul. Or, was the black being burnt from him? Was he crumbling into ashes, destroyed by this malicious light?_

_He heard screams, he heard the cries of teenagers, adults. He heard the cry of a child, its voice resonating with his own. He screamed for it, called for it, searched for it in this burning hell of white. He wanted it, needed it, and even though his flesh was bubbling like water over a fire, he wanted to become one with it. One, one, one, one, oneoneoneone. Become one, save this wretched soul. He’s drawn to its pain, its agony, its howling. Its voice is not its own but he is drawn to it, a moth drawn to the light of his hearing._

_His heart beats. Thump. Thump. Thump. His sense of self is shattered. He is not complete, he is not one. No, no, never more. Never more. Never one, never whole._

_How sad._

_The scream of the child loses its appeal. He stands, waiting, and then the light washes his mind away._

~~~

Yuya awakes with a shriek, cold sweat pouring down his neck. Instantly, there’s feet pounding on the floor outside his room and his door is tossed open. Light sheds down upon him, scathing his eyes and - _no, no, no, he doesn’t want to be in the light again!_ \- instantly he is scooped up into arms that embrace him with a tight hug.

“Yuya, Yuya, shh, shh,” the person murmurs as Yuya struggles with a sense of panic. “It’s okay, everything’s okay. Calm down.”

Ther person pulls back and Yuya wonders briefly who the voice fits to - his mom, dad, Gongenzaka, who? - but he finds it unfamiliar in his startled state. So, instead, he settles on observing the one before him, heart pounding with a kind of terrified ferocity.

The boy before him, a teenager of roughly eighteen, gives him a kind stare. Golden eyes that reflect Yuya’s own image gaze down with furrowed eyebrows, lips parted in an unasked question of concern. Gray hair striped with green meets with red-and-green pajamas, two of Yuya’s favorite colors. His memory clicks into place and he gives the other a reassuring smile, tucking his goggles over his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he says.

His brother, Zarc, looks over him with a scoff. “You are _not_. Your clothes are soaked with sweat. Were you having a nightmare?”

“I...yes. A weird one.”

“Want me to get mom and dad?”

“No, don’t wake them. I’m fine.”

“ _Yuya_ ,” Zarc warns and Yuya’s head tilts to his hands on top of his bed sheets. “Don’t act humble. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“In the dream I was...I was screaming. And then people I didn’t know were screaming and I thought I heard someone that I wanted to know,” Zarc watches him attentively, head nodding up and down as if to encourage Yuya to keep speaking, “and well, then I felt myself...split, I guess. I don’t know, it was weird and scary and there was light everywhere and it hurt, it hurt so much I-!”

Yuya winces, the phantom sensation of flesh bubbling arising in his skin. He scratches at it, desperate to be rid of the pain, but Zarc stops him from doing anything worse than reddening his own skin.

“Don’t hurt yourself over it,” Zarc tightens his grip on Yuya’s wrists making the younger boy yelp in surprise. “It’s just a dream.”

“I...right,” Yuya nods to himself. He observes his hands, comparing their smaller size to Zarc’s and yet somehow seeing them as the same size. “I...I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

His brother gives him a look of careful scrutiny. His shoulders slump and he pulls Yuya out of bed. “Well, don’t. It’s morning, anyways and you’re only up an hour earlier than usual. Come on downstairs, I’ll make breakfast.”

Zarc removes his hands and walks away, disappearing out the door. The light of the hallway is less harsher but the emptiness of his room swallows him whole. He doesn’t like the dark and he doesn’t like the light. He wants both, but he can have neither. His head swarms with confusing, philosophical thoughts and he pushes them aside to step outside of his room with a smile on his face.

A cat comes to greet him and he pets it on the head. It watches as he walks away, seemingly in dismay as he slides down the pole that acts as his ‘stairs’ between the first floor and the second floor. He strolls into the kitchen, watching as Zarc sets a frying pan on top of the stove.

“How about some bacon this morning?”

Yuya nods and Zarc grabs a package from the fridge. “Won’t mom and dad be surprised when they see this?” Zarc asks, a grin on his face. “Breakfast ready and prepared before they can even blink an eye? I bet mom will be ecstatic she doesn’t have to cook.”

“Mm,” Yuya agrees, glancing out the window. The sun had barely begun its journey to the top of the sky, a tiny sliver beginning to illuminate the sky. “Are you going to accept Ray’s offer?”

Zarc glances over to him, an eyebrow raised. “What offer?”

“To duel her,” Yuya watches as Zarc’s memory recollects and the older boy gives a sigh, shoulders slumping.

“Oh, yes, right. That.” He rolls his eyes. “She can’t win against me. She has no chance.”

“But she’s beaten you twice before,” Yuya points out. “I think no chance is a lot more than  _a_ chance.”

“Ouch, I don’t need anymore salt in that wound, thank you very much,” Zarc sets strips of bacon into the frying pan. He begins a toneless hum, quiet in volume but somehow much louder than the sound of sizzling bacon. “What about you? Don’t you have a gig for You Show?”

“It’s not a gig!” Yuya exclaims in protest. “It’s an actual duel show!”

“Oh? An entertainment duel then?” Zarc laughs about something that Yuya doesn’t get. “Well, good luck then.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Sorry, little brother. Got some business to take care of. As much as I’d love a _good_ entertainment duel, I have other things to attend to.”  

“Oh,” Yuya’s shoulders slump and he stares at the table, disappointed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come next time, alright?”

The boy brightens with a smile. Zarc reciprocates it, golden eyes glowing with the light of the kitchen. Their gazes meet, spark, and then Zarc turns away, humming yet again. Yuya wonders if his dream is affecting him more than he realizes but he pushes it to the back of his mind.

He doesn’t like feeling scared or cornered.

~~~

The sun shines down upon them as they make their way to school. It’s a chilly day, one that makes Yuya shiver with chills, but he doesn’t regret his decision to leave behind his jacket. It’s too big and bulky, puffed up to the extreme and he’d rather be a walking snowman than a walking tomato. Zarc has exchanged his pajamas for his more casual outfit of tan, brown and blue, gazing about him with a kind of amused curiosity. A few students travel in front and behind, chattering aimlessly away as the morning carries on.

Yuya notices the way Zarc’s eyes keep moving, forever wandering over a sea of heads and foliage. The boy is calm, eerily so, but there’s a nervous twitching of his lips that makes Yuya suspect his brother is nervous.

“Are you excited to see Ray?” he asks him.

Zarc scoffs, waving a hand. “Never. That girl is someone I can never be excited to see.”

“Why not?”

“Our rivalry runs deep, Yuya, far deeper than you can ever know. I will never admit to being fond of her,” he speaks in an ominous tone, gaze suddenly focusing upon a distant building. The light of the sun glints on his eyes. “Our feud is too strong for forgiveness.”

Yuya makes a face. “You’re being petty.”

“Am I?” Zarc turns to him with a huff of laughter. His hand reaches over to ruffle Yuya’s hair.

“Zarc!” Yuya splutters, pulling away. His brother laughs harder.

Yuya scrambles ahead and Zarc follows, inciting a bemused ruckus from those they swerve around. A few girls giggle as Zarc gave them an amiable wave while others rolled their eyes at the pair’s antics, well-used to the ‘entertainment duo’ that made it their calling to make others smile.

“Hold it, you two.”

A powerful voice stops them in their tracks. Zarc instantly freezes while Yuya comes to a halt, peering over the sea of students for the source of the voice.

Two girls stride over to them. One is Zarc’s age, with brownish-reddish hair pulled back into twin ponytails. She is frowning, arms crossed over the sci-fi-like riding suit she wears. Beside her, lugging a motorcycle forward, is someone Yuya’s age, a girl with pink hair pigtails and exasperation clear on her face. Ray and Yuzu, the Hiragi sisters.

Ray bounds over to Zarc and stares at him with a glare. Zarc watches her, a kind of nervous sweat enveloping his face. He holds his hands out in concern. “Yuzu,” she says, holding out a hand.

“Really?” her sister asks, pulling out a paper item to hand to her sister. Zarc gulps as does Yuya, who edges away closer to Yuzu.

_Slap!_

The paper fan makes itself another victim and Zarc places a hand on his cheek with an expression half-between confusion and pain on his face. Yuzu takes back the fan and settles it into hammerspace. Yuya watches as it disappears with a kind of awe, releasing his pendulum necklace which he had, apparently, been clutching onto during the brief seconds of meeting Ray.

“Ow, Ray, what was that for?” Zarc demands of the girl, smarting.

“You don’t know how to be on time, do you?” Ray shook her head. “You were supposed to be helping clean class yesterday, where were you?”

“I, uh,” he scratches his cheek and blushes, “I kind of...forgot - sorry!” He gives a bow, slapping his hands together in apology.

Ray huffs in indignation. “You better be, me and dad had to spend an extra hour cleaning up _your mess_ that _you_ made.”

“It wasn’t that bad!” Zarc protests, wincing as she glares down at him. “It was just an accident, nothing to be so concerned about.”

“Your science experiment turned the whole entire room into goo. I call foul play.”

Yuya gives a nervous laugh as he turns to Yuzu. “Our siblings don’t get along very well, do they?”

She sighs, a hand on her forehead. “That they do.”

He sits wordlessly, fidgeting in awkward silence. Unlike Zarc, who knows Ray enough to declare her as his eternal rival, Yuya knew little of Yuzu. She was a sweet girl, sure, and she had many admirers, but they’d knew gotten to know each other outside the few times they were grouped together during their sibling’s fights. She was also sort of his coordinator for the You Show shows he participated in and he talked to her on occasion about his dueling gigs. However, he thought little else of her. They were distant acquaintances, nothing more and nothing less.

Zarc catches on to his uncertainty and strides over to him. A hand lands on Yuya’s shoulder and the boy jumps. “Well, I guess I should be going now.”

Ray watches him with distant eyes, her gaze almost unfocused. There’s a certain tugging of her lips, a frown and the light of the sun catches in her eyelashes. There’s something about her that sends Yuya’s heart quavering and he watches with a kind of nervousness as Zarc and Ray remain in some sort of stand-off. Then, Ray gives a laugh and takes the motorcycle off of Yuzu’s hands. She waves to Yuzu, a smile alight on her lips. “Bye now. I’ll see you after school, sis.”

Yuzu waves back. “See you.”

Ray begins walking away. “Catch up to me when you can, Z.”

“Okay, R,” Zarc pats Yuya’s head. “Have fun at your gig. Give it your best shot.”

“Thanks I guess.”

Zarc gives a laugh that sounds similar to Ray’s. It almost seems strained, forced, and Yuya wonders how his brother could appear so happy yet seem so uncertain. His brother walks off, eager to catch up to Ray. Yuya holds out a hand, his lips parting, and then he turns towards Yuzu.

She raises an eyebrow at him. “What?” she asks.

Her eyes are like the china dolls his mother collects. They are shiny and colorful, a pristine sapphire that glitters with the light of the sun. However, her gaze is empty and somehow lifeless. They’re hollow, filled to the brim with an intense light that makes Yuya recoil with bubbling flesh.

She regards his staring with a frown. “Is there something wrong with my face?” she asks, her voice a deadpan monotone. Her eyes become doll-like again, glassy and glossy and looking beyond him.

He struggles for an answer, noise climbing up his throat, but he is stopped as another scene flashes before him.

_Mist. Warm winter breath, a child beside him. They laugh, hot cocoa in their hands, and stare into the stars on top of a blanket of snow. A snowflake lands on the tip of his nose. He watches it melt and then giggles. His companion laughs, too, and he enjoys the melodic twinkling of such a noise._

He shakes himself from such a bizarre and vague memory. Yuzu has already begun walking away and he chases after her with a yelp. However, when a dark-skinned girl goes to her side (though not without a nasty glare in Yuya’s direction) he settles for scuttling back and pouting. It’s not like he’s going to make any progress with her (he doesn’t want to, okay? There’s no reason for them to break the mutual distance between them) and so he falls in line with the rest of the students, clutching tightly to his pendulum. It seems to hum underneath his fingers, resonating with his conflicting interests.

A hand slaps his shoulder and he looks to the right of him to see a blond-and-brown-haired student grinning down upon him, an envelope in his fingers. “Greetings, Yuya!” Sawatari says. “What’s wrong? You don’t look all smiley today!”

Yuya frowns at that. “Am I supposed to be ‘smiley’?”

The boy peers at him and then laughs, buckling over with such great laughter that Yuya half-fears he’ll faint before the boy speaks anything else. Sawatari straightens himself out after a moment, regaining his calm as he flicks a piece of his hair away from his forehead. “Have you forgot your famous catchline already? You’re the one who’s always shouting ‘Ladies and gentleman!’ with a smile on your face.”

Yuya’s head throbs.

_He’s on top of Odd-Eyes, holding on to the ivory spikes that sprout from its back. The lovely red dragon tears through the field of the stadium, rays of brilliant light erupting from its mouth. The crowd laughs and Yuya laughs with them, his voice slightly deeper than he had realized. Brown leather gloves cover his hands and he watches in amazement as they reach to the Duel Disk on his arms to pull out a card. He can’t read what’s on it but he sees the silhouette of a sleek dark purple dragon with a rather serpentine form. It whispers to him and he sets it into play, a portal of eggplant purple and gold smoke appearing before him._

_His gaze goes to the audience and he catches sight of a girl with red-wine hair and pink glasses over her eyes. She smiles and nods at him and Yuya urges Odd-Eyes forward, blasting through the soldiers that stand before him._

_“Ladies and gentleman!” he declares, throwing out his arms. The audience goes into an uproar, shouting and screaming and he breathes it all in. He’s wanted, he’s loved, he’s_ adored. _He swims in their voices, placing two more cards onto his disk and watching as four dragons (three black silhouettes, one red and gorgeous and downright beautiful) emerge. His opponent cowers under their might and his dragons roar at her fear, at the knights that raise their swords and swear to destroy the monsters that tower over them._

_Monsters? No, not them. Never them. They’re not the monsters, they’re not the villains._

_They’re just the showpieces to this spectacle._

Sawatari pokes him on the head, eyes questioning, and Yuya snaps out of his daze. He grimaces and pushes the other boy’s hand away. “I thought you were being schooled at LDS? Why are you here?”

He grins, flashing the envelope in Yuya’s face. “I wanted to tell you the good news, my dear rival!”

“What news?”

“Both you and I have been invited to the Miami Championship Tournament!” Sawatari pulls out another envelope with what looks like Reiji Akaba’s handwriting and hands it to him. The letter is already torn open and Yuya nearly drops the contents inside. It confirms his registration (when had he registered, he wondered? He’d knew he’d signed up beforehand but...it had felt like...so long ago…) and offers a congratulations from the school’s prodigy (CEO) himself.

“Wow, that’s good I guess.”

“ _You guess?_ ” Sawatari’s voice is incredulous if not offended. The boy sighs and slaps his forehead with exasperation. “This’s the most important tournament of the _year!_ Having a chance to fight Reiji Akaba is a one-in-a-million chance! Don’t you want to do that? To beat him? To make him smile, that frowny-faced bastard? Although, the chances of _that_ are also one-in-a-million…”

“I mean, I guess…” Yuya wonders if that was his reasoning for signing up. Why had he signed up in the first place? To prove himself? To fight against his father’s reputation (what reputation, though? Yusho’s not a coward, he’s not someone who ups and leaves his son alone...) and protect his own name? His head feels riddled with questions and the ground sways beneath him as the sun glitters up at him from some puddle. His reflection looks back at him, dazed and confused and just as doll-like as Yuzu’s.

Sawatari rambles on, endlessly talking of how _he_ expects to win and how _he_ is the one who’s going to challenge Akaba Reiji because he’s _certainly_ got a bone to pick with the mature-looking boy. Yuya’s tempted to hear him until the end but the last of the students are crowding into the school and so he gives the boy a quick apology and rushes inside. He’s not sure Sawatari even notices but the envelope crinkles under his fingers and he _smiles_ (has he not been doing that lately, he thinks? His lips stretch up with a kind of unused soreness as if he has not smiled in weeks…).

There’s a kind of thrill, a kind of challenge that thrums within his body in energetic excitement. His mind clatters with the idea of the Miami Championship, with the idea of challenging Reiji Akaba and actually _winning_ against such a worthy opponent. _Winwinwinwinwinwin,_ his brain chants, a kind of instinct that purrs inside his body. Oh, yes, he wants to win. _Needs_ to win. Winning is everything no matter how much the battlefield is destroyed or how much the racing track is put into someone else’s favor. It’s like breathing and suddenly Yuya is suffocating in its promises, choked by its hands and smothered by the obsession that binds him. He _will_ win. He’ll watch as his opponent grovels, pleads, blood on their clothes, light fading from their eyes and the cards of their comrades in his hands…

Yuya snaps out of a daze and hurries to class just as the last bell beings to ring. His teacher immediately leaps to scold him and he gives a sheepish grin.

“Sorry,” he says, sitting in the corner of the room next to Yuzu. “So sorry.”

He’s not sorry.

~~~

His pendulum throbs all throughout class, humming with a kind of energy that makes Yuya glance down upon it helplessly. It thrums against his chest and Yuya can swear he sees it move back and forth little by little. He’s tempted to take his prized trinket off his neck and watch it swing but Yuzu is giving him a look that spells out a no-nonsense policy. As the class president it’s only natural she wants to keep him in line but the amount of staring she’s doing is almost unnerving. It’s like she’s trying to drill her eyes into his head to figure out what he’s thinking about, her eyes seemingly squinted in the corner of his vision. Damn her. He fidgets under her attention, unable to make a move but unable to focus on the blackboard in front of him. Such a conundrum lands in him in a position of utmost (and honestly quite annoying) difficulty.

His teacher makes a point to tap on the board and call his name but it is only when Yuzu takes responsibility (and by responsibility he means pulling out the paper fan that her sister adores and using it on him) that he pays even a slight amount of attention. He gives the wrong answer and his teacher scowls and scolds him with patient words before moving on. Yuya gives a small wave of acknowledgement to Yuzu and there is a kind of fire in her eyes that startles him.

_A blue-haired boy follows behind him, a candy sucker in hand as he trails after Yuya. Yuya flares with irritation, tired and almost agitated at this boy who has the persistent insistence to refer to him as “teacher”. The kid is younger than him, no doubt, and he wears a sly smile that can only be fitting for a mask._

_“Hey, so, teacher?” he asks, looking between Yuya and some girl that is walking next to him. “Are you and ___ like, a couple or something?”_

_The girl’s cheeks flush bright red and Yuya is left gaping. He points to the girl and glares at the blue-haired boy in indignation. “Me, like_ her? _Are you kidding me, she’s always acting like such a brute!”_

_The person beside him takes offense, pulling out a paper fan and slapping him over the head with it. He winces and whines, unsure about what he has said wrong._

_“There’s no way I’d like someone like_ him _!” she says and Yuya looks up at her at those words, jerking his head upwards._

_Yuzu stares back at him, cheeks puffed and mouth in a tight, disapproving frown._

He blinks and the blue-haired boy is gone but Yuzu is not, her image fading to reveal a different outfit underneath but with the same embarrassed, nearly disapproving expression that her other self had worn.

Yuya looks at her, eyes squinting in concern, but the memory fizzles from his mind and leaves him with a blurred version of the one that he has just experienced. It baffles him, honestly. He’s never known a blue-haired boy before and he’s certain there’s no way such a stranger can make casual remarks regarding his and Yuzu’s relationship. Yuzu and him aren’t even close enough to be considered lovey-dovey.

The girl in consideration turns away from him at last, her attention caught by the teacher. Yuya lets out a big sigh, shoulders slumping, and he stealthily removes his necklace. Yuzu does not move her head towards him again but she has it tilted towards him, eyes seemingly paying little attention to him. He can feel her gaze though, and it burns into him with curious inquiries as he holds his pendulum in front of him.

Back, forth. Back and forth. Without his prompting, the light blue crystal with metal wings wrapped around its center rocks in a straight line. It moves similarly to a newton’s cradle, endlessly continuing the cycle of its backs and forths. He watches it with a kind of awe, unsure of what is causing its movement. It’s almost a supernatural occurrence and he wonders how the pendulum is able to pulsate with the faintest of lights. Is he hallucinating, then? Is this some weird, dream-like induced dream that this pendulum, the very pendulum he’s loved since his infancy, can have magical properties?

He turns to Yuzu. If he’s right, like he suspects, and he’s suffering from a delusion, then Yuzu will have grown bored of his staring at an inanimate object and returned her attention to the board.

However, when he gazes upon her, she is giving him a flabbergasted look of surprise, her eyes meeting his to prompt unsaid questions. Her mouth makes a movement as if to ask _are you doing that?_

He mouths a reply. _I don’t know. It’s doing it on its own._

She gives him a look that suggests she half-believes him and half-doesn’t.

Yuya only offers a shrug and smile, settling the pendulum on his desk before his teacher can confiscate it from him. It pulsates with light and shivers on the smooth gray surface before its mysterious energy fizzles out and it becomes a silent, dull, ordinary necklace.

Yuzu immediately demands to talk to him.

~~~

“What was  that?” she asks as the rest of the class flees from the classroom. “What was that? What did you do to that pendulum?”

“Me?” he asks, incredulous. “I haven’t done anything - it was moving and glowing by itself!”

She puts her hands on her hips. “Tell me the truth. I know you’re an entertainer, are you practicing for some kind of magic trick? It was really cool how it moved - you weren’t even moving your hand and yet somehow it was like it was moving on its own!”

His cheeks turn red at the praise. He scratches his cheek, wishing that he had indeed been the one to pull off such a trick. “Really, Yuzu, I didn’t even-!”

The girl’s attention is pulled away by her phone. Small little chirps resound from her back pocket and she removes her device to check her messages. “Ray says she wants me to go to the LDS dueling facility with...with you, apparently.”

“Right now?”

She stares at him, her interest in their previous topic fizzled away. “You have an open period this class, right?”

“Yeah. You?”

“I have one too,” she types a quick message on her phone. “Want to head over with me? I guess Zarc’s waiting for you too.”

“Are they having their duel soon?”

“Mm, probably. That’s the only reason I can think of for them dragging us over to LDS. Honestly, sometimes I think they’re showing off the fact that they have full rides to LDS more than anything.”

Yuya laughs at that. “Both of them are great Duelists, of course they’d get in to the best Dueling School in Miami City!”

The girl nods, a distant look in her eyes. She adjusts the backpack strap on her shoulder and gestures to the hallway. “Want to walk together?” she asks, a polite request that Yuya honestly thinks lacks a bit of punch.

“Sure,” he steps in line beside her, clutching his pendulum.

There’s a quiet, silent tension in the air, one that bristles between them. Yuya fidgets nervously, unable to think of anything to say _. Oh, how’s the weather? Nice day, huh? There’s sooo many students at this school, right…?_ He lets any words he wants to say wander off, incapable of creating any reasonable piece of small talk. It’s a bit awkward, to say the least. He turns to Yuzu to watch her reaction, to at least garner some form of expression from her - maybe he should tell a joke? - when he notices it’s not Yuzu he’s walking alongside but someone else.

_A dark-haired girl looks at him, a bag held out in front of her in a respectable way. To Yuya, the girl is ladylike, polite in posture  with a small, loving smile on her lips. Yuya is aware of another presence, of a shadow that lingers behind them, but he is rather grateful that it does not show its face to him._

_“____?” the girl asks, head tilted in concern. “What’s wrong?”_

_He feels his face (his face?) heat up in acknowledgement of her worry. He flushes bright red, trying to form words but stuttering in response. “N-Nothing!"_

_The presence of the shadow looms down upon him and it is both comforting but terrifying. A sort of aura hovers over Yuya and he wants to...turn...his...head...but he can’t! This body, this physical manifestation, his_ attention _is artificially captured upon the girl. Yuya doesn’t have any control over what he is seeing, merely acting like a phantom in another body. Phantom, yes, a phantom...why does that word make him itch for his Duel Disk? Yuya tries to look for it, for the disk attached to his arm but feels only cloth and the weight of a band of some sort. It’s almost...it’s almost like he’s not…._

“What is it with you and staring?” Yuzu inquires, her frozen, doll-like gaze a stark contrast to the dark-haired girl’s polite one.

He looks away, flabbergasted that his mind had been wandering long enough to seemingly offend the girl. “Ah, sorry! I guess I was…” he trails off.

“Was what?”

“Nothing, nothing!” he waves a hand in dismissal and wanders forward to take a few steps ahead of her. However, any gain that he has made is promptly lost by Yuzu’s insistence to stay beside him.

The girl gives him a raised eyebrow, a frown, and comments no more on it. Instead, she takes a chance to look around them. “Nice weather, huh?” she says, an idle remark that almost has Yuya surprised.

“Yeah,” he looks up to the sky, a deep blue of spotted white that decorates the world above. Light filters in from behind him, casting his shadow on the white sidewalk. He winces at the distorted shape, finding it somehow unnerving.

“Who do you think will win?”

“Hmm?”

She tilts her head. “Who do you think will win the duel? My sister or your brother?”

He deliberates with a sigh. “Ray, always.”

“Always?”

“Always.”

“You have low faith in your brother,” she says, almost amused at his words.

“He’s lost twice. Two out of two and that’s not including all the school-exclusive dueling matches he’s done.”

“Ray’s not infallible though,” Yuzu points out. “Reiji’s beaten her before.”

“He has?” That’s news to Yuya.

“Ray challenged him to a duel on a whim. Surprisingly, he accepted,” Yuzu gives a laugh. “She lost in the first ten rounds though.”

He nods with interest. Reiji, star prodigy of LDS and also the CEO of a major corporation at his age (his _age_ \- this boy was practically a _genius_ by Yuya’s standards), and also an opponent Yuya is eager to get his hands on. A sudden excitement trembles within him, the skin underneath his Duel Disk itching, and he feels the false sensation of cards in between his fingers, the roar of the wind in his hair, and a hum of distant machinery all around him.

_He speeds through the racing track, his motorcycle snarling underneath him. He completes a turn, wheels screeching on cement, and he crosses a line of black chalk with a shout of excitement._

_“___, ___, did you see that?” Yuya near shouts, guiding his vehicle over to a green-haired girl. She peers up from a stop watch, frowning. His excitement dies down at her flat expression, bemusement seeping in. “What’s wrong?”_

_“You went too fast on that last turn!” the girl snaps, irritation evident. “____, when are you going to learn, being fast isn’t everything! You could have easily tipped over your _-_____!”_

_“But I didn’t!” he protests, “___, I-!”_

_“____!” she hisses, teeth clenched as she speaks his name (did she say his name, or someone else’s?). “This isn’t a race. This is a_ Duel _, remember that. Speed only matters on the first corner. You should be focusing more on your deck than on your motorbike.”_

_His shoulders slump and he lets his motorcycle adjust into silence. He hops off it and drags the vehicle towards her, frowning. “But I already know how to beat Jack! Trust me, my deck is fine.”_

_The girl rubs her forehead with exasperation. “It’s not just Jack that’s going to battling you. You’ll have other opponents in the Friendship Cup, too, you know.”_

_“I know that,” Yuya pouts, shoulders slumping. “I know I just...I want to win. I want to show the Tops they can’t look down on us. We’re just as good as they are. We deserve to be treated right, they know that. And, if I become King, they_ will _know that._ ” _A fire alights in his eyes, fists clenching in anticipation. He will win. He will. There’s no way he can’t. Jack’s his and his alone. They’re rivals, whether Jack knows it or not. And, of course, Yuya (Yuya?) wasn’t backing down._

“We’re here.”

Yuya blinks, shaking his head to gaze up at a tall tower of rather epic proportions. The sheer size of it beckons its might as the beacon of Miami City - the one attraction that garnered the city its power far and wide. Yuzu glances over it like she’s seen it millions of times before - she has, probably due to her sister - but no matter how many times Yuya looks at it he sees it as something almost majestic in nature.

“What floor are they on, do you know?” he asks.

“Floor 45. That’s where all the advanced students duel.”

He nods and follows her through the front door. A secretary awaits them, beckoning them to an elevator. “Those two prodigies of yours seemed to have requested specifically for you two and you two only to accompany them,” is all he says, gesturing them in. They say their thanks and enter.

Yuzu presses a button and the elevator hums. She watches as the numbers flick idly up, one at a time. Yuya watches them too, humming with a slight tune in his throat. She peers at him, curious, and he smiles back at her.

“I’m guessing they’re both at each other’s throats right now,” he says.

She makes a face that suggests she is considering it literally. “Probably,” there’s a slight shrug that seems to indicate a lack of thinking ‘ _maybe_ ’ more than it does ‘ _you’re right_ ’. He grimaces at her reaction, a quite vivid image of his own in his mind. Though, perhaps, of a different depiction.

_The girl with the wine hair looks at him with a cocky grin, her pink glasses hiding her eyes. She is a blurry figure, one who is clear in his mind’s eye and yet somehow not. She beckons him closer from his standing position, hand patting the empty spot next to her on the bench. He takes it with much reluctance, two sodas in his hands. She snatches the one closest to her and immediately opens it, taking a large gulp that can’t possibly be good for her._

_Suddenly, her image distorts. It’s not the wine-haired girl but a purple-haired one who stands beside him, only she is smaller -_ he _is smaller - and they glare at each other with a fierce fury that could perhaps rival the sun._

_“Back off,” she snaps, face twisted in annoyance._

_He huffs, hands pulling away from a bag of chips she has in front of her. “Rude,” he frowns at her. “Stop acting like such a spoiled princess, brat.”_

_“I have a name!”_

_“Sure you do,” Yuya waves a hand in a dismissive gesture. His own irritation is mounting as his stomach rumbles with hunger, his need for something salty making him eye the round delicacies with a watering mouth._

_He reaches out his arm, intent on grabbing one chip - just one chip!_

_Without hesitation, she slaps it away. He whines, retracting his hand, and she continues nibbling away._

Fine, be that way, _he thinks._ _Asshole._

The elevator chimes and Yuya rubs his head, wondering why such strange fantasies are occurring to him. He recognizes the girls in each - somehow or someway - but he can’t recall his having met them before. It’s almost strange - in each interaction, he is somewhat intimate with a girl who shares a face. It’s only now that Yuya ponders it that he realizes each girl has the same look, the same eyes, the same life that flourishes in their bodies. And, in each piece, he is excited, amused and yet somehow nervous, a anxious shadow of fright and possibilities. He wonders if his sudden onslaught of delusions are supposed to mean anything - perhaps they are dreams of such great and grandiose prophecies like the ones in the books Sawatari reads? - but Yuya doubts they are meant to mean anything to him. Yuzu’s face is the only one he recognizes and, even then, he wouldn’t go so far as to say the delusion means anything.

Yuzu stops off the elevator and onto a court half the size of a football field. Yuya notices it id the same court he had battled on with Sawatari weeks earlier, albeit with a missing tower and a lack of three kids who had once gotten caught up in a petty feud with the aforementioned boy.

“You made it!” Ray waves a hand and Yuya notices the two in the center of the field, Zarc’s back to him. The wine-haired girl greets her younger sister with a grin. “Are you here to watch me win?”

“ _I’m_ going to win!” Zarc turns around, frowning and crossing his arms with what seems to be a replica of a pout. “This time, for sure.”

Ray flips her hair and then looks at him with an eyebrow raised. “This time? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure!”

“Are you really, really, sure?” Ray takes Yuzu’s arm and pulls her away from Yuya. “Like, are you confident you can?”

Zarc scowls. “You cheated the last two times.”

There’s a sudden flicker of ice in Ray’s eyes. “I did not!” she protests.

Zarc walks over to Yuya and shoves him forward. “Come on, Yuya, you know I’ll win, right?”

“Well, technically...” Yuya says, voice trailing off, “Ray’s right.”

Zarc gives him a menacing look. “Come on, little bro,” Zarc’s voice holds a noticeable edge malice. “We can do this. Together.”

“Together?” Both he and Yuzu echo.

Ray looks down at her sister. “We’re doing a tag-match? What, did you think we just wanted you to watch?” the older girl shakes her head. “No, it’s you and me against them, little sis.”

“But...is Yuya alright with that?” the pink-haired girl inquires.

“I’m fine, I guess. You?”

She nods. “Sure.”

“It’s decided!” Zarc claps his hands and Yuya jumps at the sound. “Come on, come on! Get your Duel disks out!”

Both younger siblings oblige, setting the devices on their wrists. They flicker with lights and then the contraption extends itself to appear as a flat board with several card-shaped slots. Zarc and Ray hold up theirs, their decks already slotted into place.

The gray-and-green-haired boy looks over to Yuya with a faint smile. “No entertainment dueling, alright, Yuya?”

“What, why not?” he gives his brother a baffled look - the thought hadn’t even yet crossed his mind that he should perform in front of Yuzu and Ray.

“This is strictly a duel between us and them. We can’t be acting foolishly. We need to win and not prance around playing games. Which is why we’re doing a stand-up Duel today, not a Action one.”

Ray huffs at that. “Some _brother_ you are.”

“Back at you _sister,_ ” Zarc snaps, a sudden flare of temper appearing. There’s a hidden message that flickers between both boy and girl (they’re always communicating in some way, Yuya observes. Always in ways that go straight over his head, anyways…) and the younger boy watches with polite interest. Yuzu, on the other hand, has her eyes narrowed, eyes flicking between both Ray and Zarc as if she can sense something is off.

Sharp, that one.

“Guys, can we please get moving?” he asks them and Zarc gives him a soft smile.

“Sure,” he says, reaching to touch Yuya’s head. His hand lands atop the boy’s and then there’s a sudden jolt from Zarc, a sudden intake of breath and widened eyes as if his older brother has been given some sort of shock.

“Something...wrong?” Ray inquires.

Zarc retracts his hand. “Nothing!” he chimes and Ray’s eyes narrow in a perfect imitation of Yuzu’s. “Let’s go already!”

“Fine, fine,” she waves a hand, unwilling to press the subject. “Then, let’s start. Action…!”

“-Duel!” Yuya and Zarc shout.

~~~

As predicted by three out of four of their party members, Zarc is soundly defeated by Ray. The girl is quick in wits, resourceful and rather tactical, and her deck is a soundproof defense against Zarc’s. He’s beaten to zero life points within minutes and, with that, it’s left to Yuya to take the win.

He beats Ray relatively easily - she was already weakened by the time Zarc was finished - but it’s when her lifepoints are taken that he finds himself remaining against Yuzu. The girl flares with energy, beaming with a kind of smile that reflects her desire to beat him. Several cards are in her hand and her ace Melodia monster has yet to appear. Meanwhile, his ace monster - Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon - is at his side with narrowed eyes.

There was something noticeably odd about his dragon, though. The creature was normally eager to battle alongside him, always raring to roar and tear through the duel field, but today, it seemed, his dragon was nowhere ready to appreciate a battle. The creature had lost its shiny luster, head down and eyes rather dull. Yuya wonders what is wrong with it - Odd-Eyes has always been ready to jump into action whenever Yuya needs him but now...now Odd-Eyes seems sad.

It was strange to approach a card that way - cards were just cards and nothing more, right? - but Yuya rather fancied that it had a life of its own.

“My turn!” Yuzu shouts, drawing a card. She flickers and repeats the action, a lovely meadow gracing the background behind her. Her figure returns to normal and she looks over her cards with glee. “Perfect!” she whispers, slapping the card into place. “Angel’s song!” she cries. “Supreme genius! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! I Fusion Summon!” her hands combine into a fist above her hand and she pulls down. “Now, come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Bloom Diva!”

A humanoid figure appears in front of Yuzu with gravity-defying purple hair and a dress that sinks into a giant pink petals. Mustard-colored flowers hovered around the creature’s face and completely blue eyes while a sash of pink and purple wound its way over the monster's arms. Yuya watches it with a kind of awe as it graces the field, giving a low bow that seems to move Odd-Eyes to stomp its feet in approval. The humanoid winks at the dragon and then turns to Yuya, frowning. Her gaze flits between him and her summoner, light blue gaze echoing disapproval. Bloom Diva’s stare, however, darkens as she looks beyond Yuya, a shadow crossing her pale face. Yuya turns around to see Zarc looking back with a grin, slouched against a wall and relatively carefree for someone who has just been beaten.

Yuzu points to his dragon. “Battle!” she shouts. “According to Bloom Diva’s effect, when Bloom Diva attacks a special summoned monster she is unable to be destroyed in battle. However, any damage that would normally be taken by the duelist will be given to the opposing duelist instead. That monster is also destroyed afterwards.”

“You’re not saying…?” Yuya asks, voice trailing off as he looks at the amount of life points he has left - 3,000.

Yuzu grins at him and nods. “I attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with my Bloom Diva,” the humanoid monster beams, giving a curtsy to the crimson beast that stands before her. “And, before I go on, mind reciting what Odd-Eye’s effect is, Yuya?”

He frowns. “If it battles a level five or higher monster than battle damage is doubled.”

“Bloom Diva is level 6. Therefore, the normal amount of damage that would be taken - 2,500 minus 1,000 which is 1,500 - is doubled,” she gives him the most innocent of smiles. “Any last words?”

“You’re heartless,” he says with a pout.

Bloom Diva unleashes a ball of energy that flies in Odd-Eye’s direction. The dragon watches it with a sense of amusement, di-chromatic eyes enchanted by its light, until the ball bursts into an explosion. Yuya holds his arm in front of his eyes and grimaces, knowing his precious dragon is lost. His life points chime in response to his loss, showing a red zero that makes him wince.

“Good job Yuzu! Way to handle him!” Ray jumps to her sister’s side, ruffling the girl’s hair. “I knew you could do it. You have my blood in you after all!”

Yuzu wrinkles her nose. “That’s a weird way of putting it.”

The wine-haired girl laughs and turns to Zarc with a haughty grin. “Ha, look at that. We can still beat you after all. So don’t you _dare_ think about trying anything funny!”

The gray-haired boy rolls his eyes, a shadow across his face. “Come on Yuya, we’re leaving.”

The younger boy looks over at Ray. The girl smiles at him, beaming with pride evident in her face, but there is a kind of discontent that settles in the older girl’s figure. Her eyes are wary, a maroon color that settles upon him and Zarc with something akin to distrust. Her fingers are intertwined with Yuzu’s and she has the girl close to her side, so close that it is almost like they are one rather than two.

 _One_.

Yuya likes the sound of that.

Zarc pulls him forcibly into the elevator and despite Yuya’s yelps of surprise the gray-haired boy doesn’t let go. His older brother stands in the elevator with a kind of impatience, golden eyes glaring at the metal doors.

“You should have won,” he says.

“Me?”

“I thought I taught you better than that,” Zarc growls, his eyes flashing. “You shouldn’t be losing to _her_ of all people.”

“Yuzu?”

“Yes, her,” Zarc’s sudden flare of temper settles down. He looks over to Yuya and crouches down to his level. Arms extend around Yuya’s neck and the boy with the tomato-colored hair startles. Leatherbound fingers brush against his back, against the fine string of black that his pendulum sits upon. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Done what?” Yuya’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“Ah, how come I hadn’t noticed this sooner? You’re unraveling.”

“Unraveling…?”

“You poor, poor thing,” Zarc coos, fingers running down the necklace and to the blue crystal at its base. “You musn’t remember anything. You musn’t remember _them_. You’re _mine_ , not _theirs_.”

“Z-Zarc?”

Soft breath brushes against his cheeks. Zarc hums a soft melody that would, perhaps, sooth a child. However, to Yuya, it is a tone of malice, a song of knowing that makes Yuya quail in fear. He tries to back away but Zarc’s hands grip his chin and forces it up, catching Yuya’s gaze like a cobra’s and flicking out his tongue in the process. There’s something very, very wrong about the scenario and Yuya struggles against his brother’s grip. But, to no avail. Zarc’s grip is tight and it is a wonder that the boy is able to keep a hold of Yuya with one hand while the other plays with the pendulum on his neck.

Zarc’s fingers touch the pendulum and it glows a hypnotizing blue color. Zarc swings the thing in front of Yuya’s eyes and, against Yuya’s own will, his gaze is drawn to it. Back and forth, back and forth. He watches as it moves on its path, captivating him by illumination it shines with. Yuya begins to feel sleepy watching it, eyelids drooping with the effort to stay open.

“You musn’t remember everyone else,” Zarc says in a whisper. “My precious host. You can’t get close to that girl. Not again. You should know by now. They are the scum of the earth, the most rotten of the whole bunch.”

Yuya’s thoughts struggle with the words. Is he referring to Yuzu? Or, is he referring to the girls with whom he’s shared his memories with? Perhaps it is Ray. Zarc always did hate Ray. But Yuya has never been associated with her much less...much less the...the others...

“There, your memories will be sealed again,” Zarc murmurs, the pendulum still swinging in his hand. “Never forget, Yuya. We are one. Forever, we are one. Until the end, we are one.”

He echoes the statement with a slur. “We are...We are one.”

Yuya’s eyes close and he slumps into Zarc’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> And...that's the end of "Episode 1".
> 
> I'm not sure if I'll continue this or not since this can technically (technically) be a stand-alone chapter or one-shot but I'm certainly interested in seeing how others think of it. Zarc and Ray being alive and the "siblings" to Yuya and Yuzu would have made an interesting twist on the show, especially if Yuya had his memories wiped and had no possible way to associate Zarc=evil from past life. The audience would know, of course, that Zarc was the big bad and we'd all be tense watching Zarc play brother to Yuya. Ray would naturally keep Yuzu at a distance, taking away Yuzu from Yuya bc even if Yuzu has feelings for Yuya in the previous life, it is safer for Ray to keep her away from "Zarc's puppet". As for what happened to the other three Yuu boys and Bracelet Girls...well, they don't share the same fate as their canon counterparts, I'll say that much :D


End file.
